C & C globetrotting around the world…

After our last overnight train ride in China, we arrived in Guilin. We were disappointed about the city of Guilin because we thought the Li River is nice here as well, but for that you need to go to Yangshuo, so we’ll have to wait a few days. The reason we stopped in Guilin is to go see and hike in the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces. In the morning we hopped on a bus and went to Dazhai, the village in the valley by the entrance. We hiked to the Golden Buddha Hill, which was a detour on our way to Tiantouzhai village. The scenery was really nice, but the weather was cloudy and pretty cold. The Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces are an incredible feat of farm engineering used for over a millennium where the terraces rise 1000m high and the area is dotted with minority villages. We were greeted by the Red Yao women, with their super long hair (they never cut it) and nice costumes. While we didn’t catch a good season, it was still cool to see. The terraces are at their best either after the summer rains that leave them glistening with reflections, in the fall just before harvest when they turn golden or in winter when they are coated with snow. We saw them in between season, just after harvest but before the first snow, so we have a reason to go back some time in the future. On our way to Tiantouzhai village, we hiked between rice terraces, through some bamboo groves and along little creeks. It was really nice and peaceful with great views of the surrounding villages. Tiantouzhai is a hilltop village made of wooden houses and we witnessed one being built while we were there. The entire village was participating, some up on the scaffolding, some sawing while others were just watching and giving their opinion. The houses are built on a concrete platform, but the beams are not anchored to the floor and there are no nails used in the construction. Really interesting to see. After dark we went to bed, since there is nothing to do there and it was also cold. There is no heating in the houses and it was below 10 degrees, so we hid under double blankets. What a disappointment on the second day! We were hoping to do a 4 hours hike through the rice fields to Ping’an village, but we woke up to lots and lots of fog and rain. Not really weather conditions conducive to hiking, so we slept a little longer and then headed down to Dazhai to catch a bus back to Guilin. Bad timing, but still a nice place.

Yes, Macau makes more money than Las Vegas, but there is so much more to Macau than its casinos.

It was the first and last European colony in China. Portuguese traders first settled here in the 16th century and Portugal administered the city until the handover to China in 1999. Now Macau has a status similar to Hong Kong, with its own systems. It also has its own currency (patacas), but actually Hong Kong dollars are widely used. In most casinos you can actually only play with HKD.  The first inhabitants are said to have moved to Macau when fleeing the Mongols (around 1000AD), but it didn’t actually develop into a major settlement until the Portuguese settled there. First Portuguese traders were just allowed to anchor there and trade, not actually stay onshore, but slowly slowly they acquired more rights and in 1557 they were renting land and had built houses. They used the port as a hub on their trading routes with their other colonies and trading partners, such as Mozambique, Goa and Indonesia.

Unfortunately its Portuguese past is only seen by the buildings and the official names of everything, but Portuguese is hardly spoken anymore, with 95% of the population being Chinese and only 2% being Macanese (of Portuguese descent or mixed Portuguese descent). Along with Cantonese, Portuguese is still an official language though. Since Macau’s industry heavily relies on tourism and gambling, 25% of the workforce works either in hotels and restaurants (15%) or in the gambling industry (10%). There are also many immigrants working in Macau, many of whom come from the Philippines and speak better English than the Macanese.

From Hong Kong we took the ferry to Macau. The ferries go every 15 minutes, one to Macau and another to the Cotai Strip (also on Macau, where the casinos are), which is crazy. Not to mention the Sky Shuttle, a helicoter that costs 300USD per person and also flies every 15-30 minutes. This is only for Hong Kong. There is another ferry to Shenzhen and a bridge to mainland China. That is a lot of people gambling!

Upon arrival in Macau, we went to the “travel agencies” in the ferry terminal to ask about hostels and hotel specials. The people there didn’t speak Portuguese, or English or Mandarin!!! Luckily the hostel where we had reserved the first night was available for 2 more nights as well. After dinner, we walked a bit around and went to the Grand Lisboa Casino and the MGM Casino. The MGM, which is really nice inside, also hosted an Oktoberfest while we were there, but we didn’t go to it.

Our room was tiny with bunk beds, but clean and good enough since we didn’t want to pay 1,000HKD per night. We had brunch at a Portuguese restaurant: pasteis de bacalhau and grilled chorizo sandwiches. Afterwards we started the Historic Walk suggested by the Tourism Office through the old Portuguese settlement. Our first stop was Largo de Senado, Macao’s urban centre for centuries and still popular today. The neo-classical pastel-coloured buildings surrounding it are nicely renovated and create a nice Mediterranean atmosphere. We explored more of the Portuguese sights, mainly churches, such as the Cathedral, the St-Augustine and St-Lawrence churches, but also the Dom Pedro V Theatre and the Moorish Barracks. The barracks were constructed to house an Indian regiment from Goa (then a Potuguese colony as well) appointed to reinforce Macao’s police force. At the tip of the Macao Peninsula we passed in front of the A-Ma Temple, which existed before the city of Macao came into being. It is said that when the Portuguese first arrived on this spot and asked for the name of the place, they were told “A-Ma Gau” (bay of A-Ma), and hence the name of Macao. There is a legend that A-Ma, a poor girl looking for passage to Canton (now Guangzhou) was turned away by wealthy junk owners. A poor fisherman took her on board and shortly after a storm blew up, wrecking all the junks but leaving the fishing boat unscathed. When it returned to the Inner Harbour, A-Ma walked to the top of nearby Barra Hill and ascended to Heaven. In her honour, the fisherman built a temple on the spot where they had landed safely.

We then hurried to the Macao Tower, where Ben and Maayan were going to bungee jump. It is the highest jump in the world at 233m and we watched them from the bottom. Just seeing them jump our hearts were racing! After a coffee and cake break, we went to the Grand Prix F3 Museum and the Wine Museum. Both were free, completely empty and really well made. In the F3 Museum, we got to race on the Macao circuit, which was lots of fun. In the Wine Museum we had a little wine tasting, also very good.

In the evening we went to the Lusofonia Festival. The timing of our Macao visit was really good since the Lusofonia Festival took place exactly those few days. All Portuguese-speaking countries had their stands, selling artifacts, food and presenting their countries. We had dinner which was delicious and walked around, having small bites here and there and drinking free sangria from the stand of Portugal. Christoph got to talk in Portuguese with some people and we had a good time.

The next morning we hopped on the bus to Coloane Island and Coloane village. It was nice with mostly Portuguese architecture and we walked around and had lunch at a famous bakery. Afterwards we took the bus to Taipa Island (these 2 islands used to be separate, but have now become one due to landfill). It was really hot outside and we welcomed the cool of the casino when we went into the Venetian Casino. Unlike the other ones, the Venetian really looks like that inside as well and has gondoliers on its canals.

We then went to watch the Lusofonia Parade in Taipa village, which was lots of fun. As the groups were preparing, some were dancing, some chanting and it was great to see. Especially the group from Mozambique, they seemed to have the most fun and Christoph found the little Indian guy totally hilarious. And let’s not forget the Brazilian chicks! Christoph felt lucky so we went to the Galaxy Casino. We had fun playing and even came out with a small profit. Happy, we returned to the Lusofonia festival for dinner and had great food again. There was a show as well, which we enjoyed (great performances by the Goa, Damau & Diu groups) with more free sangria.

On our last day in Macau, we went to the A-Ma Temple to watch a Portuguese Folk Dancing group in front of it. Some of the performers were Chinese, but everyone knew the songs and sang along. We suspect that some were of Portuguese descent. The dances were really cool and we joined in the dancing as well. Lots of fun! We then walked back North through the small winding streets and back to the Historic Centre where it was really crowded. It was Sunday, when there are even more tourists (hotel prices more than double on week-ends). We walked in the small street with lots of shops giving out dried meat and cookie samples. We tried many different kinds and finally also bought 1, but after all that nibbling, we didn’t need to have lunch anymore, hehe. We passed by the Lu Kou Mansion, pointed out in the “Historic Walk” as an example of Chinese and Portuguese history coexisting, but it wasn’t very impressive. Then we arrived at the Ruins of St-Paul, the remains of a Jesuit church from the 17^th century that burned down 3 times. The 3^rd time they decided not to rebuild it and have left the facade standing. Right beside it is Fortaleza da Monte (Mount Fort), also built by Jesuits to defend Macau against foreign invasion by sea. Now the Macau Museum displaying the history of Macau (Portuguese & Chinese influence) is also housed there. One cool thing that we learnt there is why some languages say “tea” while others say “cha”. The countries that imported tea from Fujian province say “tea” because in their dialect it sounds like that (ex. Germany, England, France). The countries that imported tea from Canton say “cha” because it sounds like that in Cantonese (India, Russia, Portugal).

The museum was our last stop in Macau and then we picked up our stuff at the hostel before taking the ferry to Shenzhen. We really enjoyed the days in Macau as it was a good mix between culture, history, food and fun.

We crossed the border to Hong Kong by… foot! You take the metro to a specific station in Shenzhen, walk over the border and then get on the metro in Hong Kong again, so it’s pretty funny.

Imagine the landscape of Vancouver (aka Vankong or Hongcouver) with its ocean on a mountainous backdrop. Add the skyscrapers and hustle&bustle of Manhattan NYC and it’s going to start to look like Hong Kong. Then double the NYC prices, add lots of street vendors and Chinese fake watches and you will have a picture of HK. After the 99 years of British rule that ended on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong is not China. It still has different judicial and political systems, a different currency and enjoys more economic freedom than mainland China (called the one country, two systems principle). But let’s not forget the print the British left: driving on the wrong side of the street and widely spoken English.

Actually, this is only about 20% of Hong Kong, where the city is. The other 80% of Hong Kong is covered by jungle and is a lot quieter. It was interesting to discover the urban jungle of the city and skyscrapers, and then heading to the islands around the peninsula and seeing ancient fisher villages, untouched jungle and pedestrian islands.

On our first day there, we went to various famous markets in Hong Kong, like the flower market with its thousands of orchids, the bird market and the goldfish market where many fish are already put in a plastic bag ready for you to take home. After dark we watched the “Symphony of Lights” from the Kowloon side over Hong Kong Island. The idea is nice, but they could do so much more with it. The view of the waterfront and its skyscrapers is beautiful and we also walked on the Avenue of Stars, taking pictures with Bruce Lee’s bronze statue.

Luckily we were able to Couchsurf the first 2 nights in Hong Kong because the city is just unbelievably expensive, especially if you’ve travelled through Mainland China before. Our CS hosts were Raphaele (a French teacher from Poitiers) and Shane (a Kungfu Master from Shijiazhuang) who moved to HK over a year ago in their tiny apartment. The apartment is so tiny, that where we slept was the hallway/kitchen/living room/office/guest room. Their bedroom was not any bigger: only the mattress and a wardrobe fit, while the bathroom was crazy small. It was very nice of them to have us and it was interesting for us to see how people live, but I don’t think we could live like that for more than a few days. It’s interesting to see how people make do.

On the second day, we got up early and applied for our Vietnamese Visa, which was surprisingly quick and cheaper than in mainland China. We then walked through the neighbourhood called Central on Hong Kong Island, which is the business district of HK and passed the 70-storied Bank of China building. We got to a nice park and discovered that the CIBC building was just across from it. A bit like in Montreal with the Cathedral and the small park on University Street. We went up to the 36^th floor where the CIBC Office is, enjoyed the views and had the chance to talk to the managing director. From there we walked again through the city, passed the St-John’s Cathedral (one of the few colonial buildings still standing in Central) and had lunch at McD. It was really annoying seeing delicious food around us, but because of budget limitations we couldn’t have it, so we had McD’s more often than we would have liked. After that we headed to the Mid-Levels Escalator, the longest covered escalator in the world at a length of 800m, taking 20min one way and transporting 20,000-30,000 people daily. From there we could look down on SoHo with its fancy restaurants. We also passed the Government House, formerly the office and residence of the Governor of HK during the British rule, and St-Joseph’s Church, a strange-looking blue church.

We took the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak to 396m above sea level. The tram opened in 1888 and was powered by coal fired steam boilers. It is said to be a landmark in HK and the most enduring emblem of HK’s past. The leaning gradient varies between 4 and 27 degrees, but it feels more like 45 degrees (especially going down when you stand). Before its construction, one was carried up by sedan bamboo chairs strapped to 2 poles and carried by 2 people. At the top, we went to a look-out point and then walked the 3.5km Victoria Peak garden park trail with nice views all around. From the top we also watched the sunset with Keith and Sarah, whom we coincidentally met up there and knew from Lijiang. We took the tram back down together and walked under the HSBC main building. Feng shui (wind water) influences the construction of many buildings in Hong Kong (lifted HSBC building, wholes through entire buildings or missing floors) in order to allow bad spirits to pass through the structure, not to stop at it.

On the third day it was time for us to explore the other side of Hong Kong: its nature. Christoph went hiking with 2 Hong Kongnese from CS, while Cecilia stayed in the hostel sorting pictures and reading about the Outlying Islands and Macau to plan the upcoming days. Christoph was happy to discover a different side of Hong Kong while hiking on the Yuen Tsuen Ancient Trail in the New Territories. The 6-hour hike was beautiful, passing through unspoilt tropical forests and alongside quiet creaks.

On our fourth day, we got up pretty early and rode the metro to the end of one of the lines on Lantau Island. We took the bus winding the road up to the Ngong Plateau and visited the Tian Tan Buddha, the world’s tallest outside seated bronze Buddha. You climb up 268 steps to reach the feet of this 26m tall gilded statue and get rewarded with nice views of the surrounding area. From there we followed the road to tranquillity on the “Wisdom Path”, an outdoor replica of the centuries old Heart Sutra, one of the world’s best-known prayers that is revered by Confucians, Buddhists and Taoists alike, displayed on 38 wooden steles which are arranged like an 8 shape to symbolise infinity. We then went to Tai O, a small fishing village with houses on stilts. What’s interesting is that the houses are connected, with the passageway of one going through the living room of another house. We also walked though them and were surprised to see Western toilets and flat screen T.V.s in these rustic houses. We also had a nice lunch here before hopping on the next bus to beautiful Cheung Sha Beach, before going to Mui Wo and taking the ferry back to Central on HK Island.

Then we took another ferry to Yung Sheu Wan on Lamma Island, a small island with no cars and laid-back people. We arrived just as it was getting dark and found an apartment to share with Ben and Maayan for 500HKD, a great price compared to Kowloon. After dark the small fisher harbour looked like Crete in Greece with the fisher boats and little houses on the hills.

On our last day, we had breakfast in the room with baguette, cheese and fruits before heading out to the Family Trail for a hike to the other side of the island, the fisher village of Sok Kwu Wan. We passed a look-out point and a beach and then had a delicious seafood lunch. We took the ferry back to Central to go pick up our Vietnamese visa. Afterwards we walked to the Golden Bauhinia, the symbol of Hong Kong since the 1997 British handover and is also the flower on the flag. Right next to it was the Convention Center, a huge construction by the waterfront.

On Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (the peninsula), we felt like in Manhattan, but on Lantau Island with its hilly drive, ocean and beaches, it felt like Hawaii. Then on Lamma Island we could have been in a Greek fisher village by night and in Costa Rica during the day. And all of this in Hong Kong, a city-state of only 1,104 square km (half the size of Luxembourg!).

Kunming was a stop-over on our way to Guangzhou, but it was nice. It was also our first Couchsurfing experience and we were excited about how it would turn out. Our host – Edgar – welcomed us and cooked dinner for us. He’s a pretty interesting character and a wealthy Chinese travelling overseas twice a year. He also gave us his business card and we saw that he’s the DEAN and associate professor of the Yunnan Business School. Wow! We didn’t expect to CS at the dean’s place, but it was a good start, hehe.

The Stone Forest is the main attraction around Kunming, but after the long train ride we didn’t feel like taking the bus for 6 hours that day, so we explored the city instead. We visited the Yuangtong Temple, the largest Buddhist Temple in Kunming which is over 1200 years old, but many parts have been reconstructed in the Qing period (1644-1912). It’s a very nice and peaceful place, with lots of people lighting incense and many little turtles in the water. To the back, there is also a statue of Sakyamuni, a gift from the Thai king, where we met a retired couple from Longueuil (recognized them by the La Cordee hat) and then had lunch with them at a Vegetarian Restaurant close by recommended by the LP. From there we went to the Green Lake Park to walk around and people-watch. When we left the park, we were looking for Renmin Lu (Main street) and a mature Chinese man stopped to ask us if he could help us. We said Renmin Lu and he pointed us in the right direction (first time someone stops to ask us if we need directions and also in English). People in Kunming are really friendly! We took the bus back to Edgar’s place and were pleasantly surprised that Kunming has reserved lanes for buses. We had read that the city is trying to be the “greenest” in China, but it’s nice to see some concrete steps towards it as well.

And another 24-hour train ride: Kunming to Guangzhou. We are always happy when we get a sleeper since it is infinite times more comfortable. In our “compartment” we had 2 couples, one of which had just gotten married in their hometown near Dali during the “Golden Week”. They shared they cookies and fruits with us, we gave them nuts and seeds. The people were really friendly and we wished we spoke Chinese to be able to better communicate with them. It was probably the most pleasant train ride and the landscape was beautiful with mountains and rice fields. We also had good old boxed soup, an essential part of any long train ride.

We arrived in Guangzhou at noon and were hit by the heat and humidity! We had forgotten how hot it was in some parts of China, especially here with its humid, sub-tropical climate. Since we left Chongqing, we had had pretty chilly weather, so it was a slap in the face. The name of the province of Guangdong means vast East and the language spoken here is Cantonese, like in Hong Kong. Guangdong has about 80 million residents and 35 million more migrant workers, many of whom labour in the factories but are not given the resident status and go home to their families on public holidays. The people of Guangdong have been disdained by northerners as culture-less and barbaric due to their trader ways. Geographic isolation has forced people to rely on their innovation for survival and they have made their homeland one of the wealthiest regions in China. The Cantonese have always looked to the sea for their livelihood, starting with the Ancient Maritime Silk Road and seafood for their diet. Because they have been more exposed to the outside world, they are said to have more liberal ideas. We have witnessed the fact that a lot more people speak English, probably also because of their proximity to Hong Kong.

The city of Guangzhou is said to have been founded by five immortals who descended from the sky to save the city from starvation back in 214 BC. Since then its history has been dominated by trade and revolution, and after 1949 the city’s mission is to make money, we were told.

We walked on Shamian Island, which was acquired as a foreign concession after the 2 Opium Wars and has many beautiful French and British buildings, along with the little Church of our Lady of Lourdes built by the French in 1892. There we saw many couples taking wedding pictures, like in the vicinity of most churches in China. The island is very quiet and you wouldn’t believe you’re in a city of over 10 million people. We then walked along the Pearl River, passed the Sun Yatsen Memorial Hall and up to the Cathedral of the Scared Heart, a huge and beautiful cathedral in neo-Gothic style also built in the 19^th century. It is entirely of granite and its massive towers reach a height of 48m.

We then walked on some narrow lanes in the neighbourhood where we saw dumpling with peanut sauce (called Hunan dumplings in Canada) for 8RMB (20 dumplings for $1.30), so we had to have some. They were delicious and gave us energy to keep on walking. We kept on walking through the streets (some had lots of electronic shops and Christoph looked for some WECO products, but he only found some similar connectors) before reaching the Mosque Dedicated to the Prophet. We couldn’t go in because it was prayer time, but the “smooth minaret” looked interesting. We then took the metro to the meeting point with Ciro, our CS host here, who was an amazing guy and super host. With him we went to a CS event where someone presented a previous trip to Mongolia and Siberia. Afterwards we went to a Light Show. It was nice to see, but the most interesting part started when one of the light screens caught fire. The police on the premises first took pictures and it took about 30 minutes if not more until we heard the fire trucks approach. When the fire trucks arrived, they couldn’t access the building, so it took even longer. All this time the screen thing is burning and burning pieces are falling on the ground. One fire fighter came, took some pictures and finally the truck made its way there as well. It started shooting water, but it was parallel to the building instead of towards it. They finally managed to extinguish the fire, but about an hour had passed. Unbelievable! We called them fire “watchers” not fire fighters!

The next day we hopped on a fast train to Shenzhen. It’s amazing that there’s a train every 10 minutes between Guangzhou and Shenzhen and they are all full! The 165km took 1 hour because of the stops in between, but it’s very comfortable and goes by fast (especially after a 24-hr train ride, 🙂 ). We met up with Barrett (a friend that we had met in Qingdao) who was kind enough to host us at his place during our stay. World travellers are really cool people! There is nothing much to see and do in Shenzhen, but we came here to celebrate Cecilia’s birthday with people we met on our trip so far: Barrett, Brandon & Kerry, as well as Cedrick. Shenzhen was a small fishermen’s village only 30 years ago, but now it has over 15 million inhabitants. Pretty crazy! At midnight, Christoph sang me La Multi Ani and gave me a small walnut cake that we all shared. It was a nice way to start my birthday. One of the best birthday presents ever: got to sleep in. We all had a nice breakfast and walked around the neighbourhood to find a restaurant for the party. In the evening we met up with everyone and went to the resto. It was really good, although not local, but Szechuan dishes. In one dish there was the Szechuan pepper, which is said to make your mouth numb. It did indeed! First the tongue and then the rest of the mouth, spreading slowly. It’s was very strange sensation and lasted 10 minutes or so. You can still eat and talk, but it feels a bit different. We talked a lot, had lots of laughs and a good time. Afterwards we decided it would be fun to go to Karaoke (KTV), a typical Chinese thing to do. Cedrick knew a place, got us a KTV room and we sang the night away. With all the birthday wishes from overseas and the great party in Shenzhen, it was a great birthday far away from home. Thanks everyone!

The “Golden Week” in China is 10 days long where people celebrate the National Day, so after hiding from the masses in Lijiang, we went to Dali to lay low there for the last few days. Our bus ride took 4.5 hours, but some other people took 7-8 hours in bumper to bumper traffic for 175km. On the way we saw people working in the rice fields, harvesting. Our first day in Dali was freezing! Dali is at an altitude of 1900m, but we expected warmer temperatures. So we didn’t do anything besides chilling in the hostel and watching movies cuddled up in blankets. Felt really good though; the only thing missing was Gluehwein, but you can’t have everything in life, right?

On the second day we met up with Ben and Maayan from Israel, whom we had met in Chengdu and Lijiang again and they showed us around Dali a bit.

The old town of Dali is sandwiched between the 4000m-tall Cang Shan (Green Mountains) and Erhai (Ear-shaped) Lake. It used to be the backpacker hang-out place and is also said to be very touristy. Although we saw tourists (and Westerners, some of who moved here), the place was definitely not as crowded as Lijiang since there were no tourist groups there, only Chinese backpackers. The town was pretty small and not so pretty, but we liked the fact that it’s inhabited and you can see locals going about their daily business: going to the market, getting freshly ground beef at the butcher or carrying their kids around in the traditional back-packs.

One day we went with Ben and Maayan to watch Cormorant Fishing. The local fishermen use these birds to catch fish, a technique used since 1000AD. From the documentary we had seen in Canada, the fishermen would tie the cormorants’ necks so they cannot swallow the fish they caught. What we saw, the birds didn’t have their necks tied, but they speared the fish and the fisherman would then grab the fish. It was also cool the way he took the birds either by their necks or their beaks to move them around. It was interesting to see the whole fishing practice, but we didn’t stay very long on the boat, just enough to see them catch a few fish. The area around Dali is inhabited by the Bai minority and the lady rowing our boat was a Bai, with a nice costume and headdress.

In Dali there is a small Catholic Church, which an English couple told us about. It was built by the French in 1938, but got shot down during the Cultural Revolution. It has reopened since 1998 and even has a seminary now. It was interesting to see this small and cute church with Bai architecture. It was also nice because there was a boy playing piano while we visited, so it gave the place a serene atmosphere. The weather in Dali was pretty capricious and it rained every evening with the mornings being very humid and foggy. The last day there, we decided to go up Cang Shan, but didn’t make it to the top as we wanted to be back before dark. At least we got a bit of exercise.

In Dali we also had delicious food, both Chinese (Sweet and sour pork, yak steak, plum spirit, roasted chestnuts and green walnuts as snacks while watching movies and “Friends”) and Western (Belgian Waffles, burgers, carrot cake).

After the Tiger Leaping Gorge, we returned to Lijiang. We had heard Lijiang is very nice, so we thought it would be a good place to spend time and avoid traveling during the “Golden Week”. October 1^st is the Chinese National Holiday and the entire week following that is chaos everywhere in China. Most Chinese people are on holidays during this time, so 100 million Chinese travel every day (that’s right: 100,000,000 ppl!) and we definitely didn’t want to be part of this craziness. We stayed for a week in Lijiang, a pedestrian town with beautiful small alleys, canals and flowers everywhere, avoiding trains and buses. It was really nice and reminded us of the floral villages in Alsace, except for the Chinese tourists. The town is touristy in normal times as well, but since October 1^st there are masses of people.

In the surroundings of Lijiang live the Naxi, an ethnic minority who still have a hieroglyphic language and a matriarchal society. In the town there were so many shops selling traditional hand-made Naxi colourful shawls, scarfs, skirts and shirts. There were also many places selling knickknacks and wood carvings. The most remarkable thing is that the million tiny shops selling CDs are all playing ONE song: “Darling, darling…”. There were also lots of restaurants and bars and we had the impression that nobody really lived there; that it was all for tourists, but it was still very nice. One day we had lunch at a small restaurant and Christoph ordered “Ants climbing a tree” (rice noodles with chicken and veggies) which was delicious, but a few times we went to our hostel’s family dinner (Mama Naxi dinner).

There are not many attractions in town, but wandering through the alleyways was very nice. It’s like a maze though, so you cannot be in a hurry. What’s funny is that 99% of tourists stay in a few alleys where most of the shops are, so if you go an alley left or right, you might find a peaceful corner. We didn’t do much while in Lijiang, so working on the blog and relaxing while talking to other travelers were our top priorities.

Christoph did go on a day trip to Shuhe village with a Dutch guy, which was supposed to be an ancient Naxi village, but it turned out to be a miniature of Lijiang. One evening we also went to the Naxi Orchestra concert. What was interesting was the fact that most of the musicians are over 80 years old and they play ancient traditional instruments. We hope this tradition will get passed on. The old guys were funny to watch, some falling asleep as a guy held a speech, while others were popping Mentos all evening. We had planned on doing one more day trip to Baisha village by bike, but the rain (any laziness?) kept us indoors. We did go to a market, where you could buy anything from fruits and veggies to brooms and car tires. We only bought peaches and a melon though. There is also the Black Dragon Pool Park (where the spring of the town river is located) which is supposed to be pretty nice, but with the drizzle and high entrance fee, we decided to skip it.

In one hostel we were staying (Garden Inn), there was a dog barking from midnight to 6am, so we switched hostels. We traded the barking dog for a screaming 2-yr-old! Because many hostels are guesthouses, the family actually also sleeps in one of the rooms. The kid of the family here can do whatever he wants to, even at 7am when the guests sleep. The Chinese don’t control their kids at all, so they do what they want. With each family having only one child, and therefore 4 grand-parents spoiling this one child, the kids are known as “Little Emperors”. There is a lot of pressure on these kids for supporting the family later, an issue called the 1-2-4 problem where 1 kid has to support 2 parents and 4 grand-parents. It’s going to be interesting to see what is going to happen to these generations in time.

After Lijiang we are going to Dali, where we will spend few more days until the “Golden Week” is over.